The present invention relates generally to visor assemblies for use in automotive vehicles, and more particularly to such an assembly comprising a plurality of attachable modular members.
Sun visors are well known and widely used, and a great many designs have been successfully employed in vehicles over the years. Engineers have developed a variety of elegant ways by which visor bodies may be constructed and mounted in a vehicle. There has been and continues to be a premium in the automotive industry on cost savings. An area of particular focus is production cost, most particularly the labor cost in assembling a vehicle. It is much more cost effective to produce a multitude of identical vehicles compared to providing custom vehicles. Thus, there has been a perceived advantage to the use of identical or interchangeable installed components to speed up the assembly process and thus reduce cost.
A competing design criteria has become increasingly important in recent years, namely, to provide an increased variety of amenities to the vehicle owner and vehicle occupants. As aerodynamics and perceptions of style have compelled vehicle designers to produce vehicles that appear more and more similar, there is a greater emphasis on distinctive interior trim features and amenities. Of particular concern with respect to the present invention is the variety of features that can be associated with vehicle visors.
The primary purpose of the vehicle visor is to block the glare from the sun, whether direct or reflected, or from other light sources such as oncoming headlights. Much effort has been dedicated to methods of mounting visors to provide a mechanism that can be easily positioned by an vehicle passenger in a variety of positions depending on the location of the source of incoming light. These efforts include providing multiple visor panels and expandible or extendible panels, and a variety of pivotable or rotatable mountings.
Vehicles visors have also been widely used as a convenient location for passenger amenities, most particularly a vanity mirror. There is a substantial body of art relating to mirrors in visors and the apparatus for including a hinged cover for such mirrors and vanity lights for such mirrors. Additional amenities which have been included in visors include wireless phones, garage door opener signaling devices, organizers (i.e., receptacles for maps, combs, tissues, notepads, pens, etc.). With the advent of digital communications, digital image and sound recordings, voice recognition, and digital displays it is anticipated that the visor can be used to house an increasing variety of electronic components relating to onboard computing, communication or information display.
A trend in the automotive industry is to provide a discrete vehicle xe2x80x9cmodelxe2x80x9d with a limited variety of amenity packages. For example, there will be a base model with a lower level amenity package, a middle level or upgraded amenity package typically including more electronics, and a top level or deluxe amenity package which includes most or all of the amenities available. Although the profit to the manufacturer typically increases with each amenity level, it is still desirable to make production of each vehicle as uniform as possible to reduce costs.
There is also a substantial body of art relating to the specific structure or construction of the visor to provide a strong, lightweight construction that matches or compliments the vehicle interior trim in a cost effective manner. Of particular interest is the xe2x80x9cclam shellxe2x80x9d type construction which involves the molding of a single piece which is folded in half to form the visor. The exterior surface can be molded to provide a suitable visor surface or a desired covering can be added in a variety of ways.
What is lacking in the art is a visor design which allows the consumer to take full advantage of the various multitude of design advances in the visor art while providing the vehicle manufacturer the cost savings of a consistent visor mounting which can be repeated in each vehicle regardless of the visor amenities to be provided. In particular, there is no modular visor system which provides for a wide variety of visor features and styles upon a uniform or standard visor mount or base position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,421 to Kalkman et al. is entitled a Multiple Function Visor, and includes a pair of opposed visor panels. Both of the panels in Kalkman are fixed to the vehicle roof, and are pivotable as individual units, allowing the panels to be brought together and fastened at opposing ends. When fastened thusly, the Kalkman visor may be manipulated as a single unit, however, one of its two attachments to the vehicle roof must first be disengaged.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,401,073 to Viertel et al. is entitled a Sun Visor For Vehicles With Mirror Attachment. Viertel provides a polypropylene particle foam body, and has a recess on a front face for attachment of a mirror-frame assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,097 to George et al. is entitled a Universal Visor Mounting System. George provides a visor body with a medially positioned pocket for receipt of a curved blade-like frame. The frame is fixed to a vehicle roof, and is designed to attach to and support different visor bodies.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,202 to Gabas is entitled Sun Visor For Vehicles. Gabas provides a visor with a stiff plastic hollow base structure and two stiff plastic end members secured to opposite ends of a longitudinal edge of the base structure. The end members are used for mounting the visor to the vehicle roof, and are substantially smaller and narrower than the base structure itself.
In one aspect, a vehicle visor is provided. The visor comprises a visor body having a plurality of attachable modular body members. The plurality of attachable modular members includes a base body module and at least one extension body module. The plurality of modular body members include attachment means for endwise coupling to at least one adjacent modular body member. A single mounting member is provided for mounting the visor body to a vehicle body. Attached thusly, the visor body is swiverable about the single mounting member, and is further moveable between an upward stowed position, and a downward position in which it covers a portion of a vehicle window.
In another aspect, a visor assembly is provided comprising a segmented visor body having a plurality of visor body modules and mounted in a vehicle interior with a mounting member. The plurality of visor modules includes a base module positioned at an end of the segmented visor body and attached to the mounting member, and at least one extension module coupled to the base module. The plurality of visor modules each have at least one substantially straight mating edge coupled to a mating edge of an adjacent body module, wherein the coupling creates a unitary piece that is rotatable about the mounting member.
In still another aspect, a vehicle visor is provided. The visor comprises a modular base member having two mating edges, and is centrally positioned in an elongate segmented visor body. A plurality of modular extension body members are attached to the base member. A mounting member is provided and has a first end affixed to the modular base body member. The mounting member has a second end affixed to a structure in a vehicle interior. The visor body is swivelable in the vehicle interior, and is moveable between an upward stowed position, and a downward position in which it covers a portion of a vehicle window.